Bette Midler apologises after ‘women are the n-word of the world’ comment sparks outrage

'Angrily I tweeted w/o thinking my choice of words would be enraging to black women who doubly suffer, both by being women and by being black'

Actor and singer Bette Midler has apologised for a tweet in which she wrote “women are the n-word of the world”.

Her comment quoted the title of the 1972 song written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, which was controversial on release, with many US radio stations refusing to play the track.

The phrase was coined by Ono, but many believe it directly borrows from Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, which features the line “De n***** woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see.”

“Women, are the n-word of the world,” Midler tweeted. “Raped beaten, enslaved, married off, worked like dumb animals; denied education and inheritance; enduring the pain and danger of childbirth and life IN SILENCE for THOUSANDS of years. They are the most disrespected creatures on earth.”

She later defended the tweet in two further posts, writing: “I gather I have offended many by my last tweet. ‘Women are the... etc.’ is a quote from Yoko Ono from 1972, which I never forgot. It rang true then, and it rings true today, whether you like it or not. This is not about race, this is about the status of women; THEIR HISTORY.”

She was swiftly criticised for the tweet, both in the complete erasure of black women from her comments and for appropriating language that has been used in a system of oppression that white women have directly benefited from.

All the tweets were later deleted and Midler posted an apology. "The too brief investigation of allegations against Kavanaugh infuriated me," she wrote. "Angrily I tweeted w/o thinking my choice of words would be enraging to black women who doubly suffer, both by being women and by being black. I am an ally and stand with you; always have. And I apologise."

The FBI investigation into the sexual assault claim made against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh by Dr Christine Blasey Ford was given one week to reach its findings; the report was finished after five days.

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